


What the Heart Wants

by blueboxesandtrafficcones



Series: Fic Prompts - Broadchurch [2]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, First Time, Heart-to-Heart, Post-Coital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 05:37:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14562039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones
Summary: Hardy and Miller finally cross the line from colleagues to something more - but once the passion settles, there are conversations that need to be had.





	What the Heart Wants

**Author's Note:**

> This was prompted on Tumblr as part of the Super Sappy Prompt List:  
> #5 - I wanted this for so long  
> #11 - I thought you didn’t want me

Hardy fell onto his back panting hard, one hand settling on his chest over his heart.

Beside him Miller was still gasping for breath, and they lay quietly as their heartbeats calmed.

“Well, that was something,” she finally commented, and he snorted a laugh.

“Not sure how that happened, honestly,” he admitted, hand inching across the bed to stop just short of her own.

“Does it matter?”  Ellie shrugged, turning her head to face him.  “We’re both adults; s’not like it’s cheating or anything.  Don’t lots of partners end up in bed together?”  She remembered Tess and Dave too late; his grimace at the reminder punctured the afterglow, and her brain began to calculate the previous twenty minutes.  “Sorry.”

“Eh, ancient history,” he dismissed.

“Right,” she agreed awkwardly, and they simply lay there staring at his ceiling, wondering at the future.

“Was this a mistake?”  Hardy eventually blurted, closing his eyes.

“Do you think it was?” she shot back, and he groaned quietly.

“Do you?”

“Hardy!”

“No, I don’t.  Or at least I didn’t,” he muttered under his breath.  “Your turn.”

She went quiet for several long moments.  “No.”

He nodded at the ceiling, before almost jumping in surprise as her hand met his between them.  Lacing their fingers together he squeezed her palm, not bothering to hide the smile creeping across his face.

They lay together holding hands, until he felt the bed begin to shake slightly.

“Is that a mobile?”  Hardy asked innocently, looking over at her for the first time to see her shaking with silent laughter.  She waved her other hand at him before covering her mouth, letting the giggles explode out.  “What is it?”

Ellie rolled onto her side, gasping for breathing as she howled with laughter.

“Miller?”

His confusion just made her laugh harder, and the sight, confusing as it was, sent a burst of warmth through him that had nothing to do with lust. It had been a long time since anyone had been so free in front of him.

He liked it.

“Some- something my sister said once,” she managed to wheeze out, one hand still holding his while the other clutched at her stomach.

Hardy just stared at her, waiting patiently for her to explain.

Finally calming slightly she looked up at him, only to burst into fresh gales of laughter when their eyes met.  Rolling forward, she buried her head against his chest as she sobbed from giddiness, and he resigned himself to wrapping his arm around her and riding it out.

It took another ten minutes, but eventually she was calm enough to tilt her head up, resting her chin on his pec.

“All right there?”  Hardy raised an eyebrow, unable to not smile back at the wide beam she gave him.

“Do you remember when they accused us of an affair during the trial?”

His expression dropped, but he nodded slowly.  “Hard to forget.”

“Lucy asked me if it was true.”

“She did?”  He didn’t think anything about that woman could surprise him anymore, but apparently not.

“Yeah.  She said – God I can’t believe I’m saying this to your face – she made the obvious joke.”

“What, that I’d likely have keeled over?”

Ellie snorted.  “No, wanker. About your  _name_.”  She raised her eyebrows, but he only stared blankly back.

“What about it?”

“Harder, Hardy,” she managed to say with a straight face, though she lost it when his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

“What?!”  He huffed, face twisting into a scowl.  “Honestly Miller, I know she’s your sister but that- that woman…”

“Really?”

“What?”

“Still Miller?” she asked with a scoff.  “I’m naked in your bed in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of a  _shift_ , and you’re still calling me Miller?”

“Ellie?” he tried, before making a face.  “Ugh.  And Hardy’s still just fine – so long as you don’t make that joke ever again.”

“Oh, just for that I’m making it  _every time_ ,” she threatened, not understanding why he immediately stilled beneath her.  “What?”

“Every time?”  His voice was carefully neutral, and she easily recognized it from the interrogation room.

“Maybe not  _every_  time,” she reconsidered, tilting her head in thought.  “But definitely every so often.”

His face didn’t change, and her brow furrowed.  “Hardy,  _what_?”

“You make it sound like we’ll be doing this again,” he said slowly, and it was her turn to pause.

“God, was it really that awful for you?”

“Wha- of course not.”  He looked at her like she was an idiot.  “I just thought-”

“Thought what?”

He seemed to weigh his words carefully for a long minute.  “I thought you didn’t want me.”

At that Ellie scrambled up onto her knees, staring at him in disbelief. “What on Earth would make you think that?” she demanded.

He sat up as well, and she noticed that he was able to keep his eyes firmly on her face.

“You never said anything,” he protested weakly, and she laughed in disbelief.

“You mean like, I dunno, inviting you to the pub?”

It had been six months since that invite, but they had never discussed it again.

“What?  But- that wasn’t-” he spluttered a protest.

“What?”

“I didn’t think it was like that,” Hardy admitted honestly with a vague hand wave.  “I thought…”

“Yes?”

“I’m no good at this, Miller,” he told her quietly. “Relationships, romance- I’m bloody useless.”

“Not entirely useless,” she joked, wriggling her eyebrows.  He ignored her.

“I didn’t know you wanted this.  I thought- well, I thought it was just me.”

“How long?” she asked quietly.

Hardy shrugged.  “Years.”

Ellie nodded, staring into the distance.  “It’s not just you,” she told him quietly, as if their unexpected nooner hadn’t made that abundantly clear.

“What about you?” he challenged, gaze steady on her now that he’d laid down all his cards.

“Years, I suppose,” she said thoughtfully.  “I’m trying to remember – maybe during the trial?  I was so torn up then, though… I was hoping, when you moved back, but you never- well, doesn’t matter now.”

“So, to recap,” he said slowly, and her lips twitched as he defaulted back to  _detective mode_ , “I’m interested, and you’re interested…”

“Sounds about right,” she agreed seriously.

“So what now?”

“Now?” Ellie repeated.  “Now, you show me what you’re capable of.”

She grinned, then, a happy smile that stretched to her eyes.

“Is that a challenge?”  Hardy came up on his knees, forcing her to look up at him.

“I believe it is,” she said coyly, and in a quick movement he had tackled her, knocking her onto her back as she shrieked.

He began to kiss a slow trail down her body, giving each breast its due before moving on.  By the time he’d reached the juncture of her thighs, her breathing was hitching regularly and he could smell her arousal.

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” he groaned, finally moving in for the kill; it was a long time before she could muster a reply.

“Me too,” she panted, pushing him onto his back and following a similar trail.  “So, so,  _so_  long.”

Hardy just laughed, and she’d never heard a sweeter sound in her life.

Until, of course, he started cursing and moaning her name.


End file.
